Jurors took less than two hours to find Taras “Maurice” McGirth guilty of felony death by vehicle and involuntary manslaughter.

The 49-year-old man was sentenced to two to three years in prison for causing the crash that claimed the life of Andrew “Andy” Christopher Hovis.

Hovis was a 20-year-old Gaston College student who was on his way to class the morning of the deadly crash.

Hovis’ parents, Mark and Donna Hovis, each spoke tearful words about their son in court Thursday.

Donna Hovis described her son’s battered body after he’d been pinned inside his car from the crash that happened on Nov. 11, 2010, on Dallas-Cherryville Highway.

Hovis said her son’s contagious smile was gone. Instead he breathed through a ventilator, his head swollen twice its size and his limbs broken.

Donna Hovis spoke of her son’s warm personality and how he sometimes insisted that she stop and give him a hug.

“He was a wonderful, affectionate child,” she said.

Two charges

McGirth was also injured in the crash.

The Tega Cay, S.C., man was on his way to see his girlfriend in Bessemer City the morning of the crash.

But something went terribly wrong.

McGirth testified that he blacked out as he took exit 14 off of I-85 and that he remembers nothing of the crash.

Five people testified about McGirth’s erratic driving. Each described different encounters and painted a picture of McGirth hitting mailboxes running people off the road, striking a concrete barrier at a bridge and going airborne after hitting a median.

McGirth and Hovis hit head-on. McGirth’s car landed on its roof. The steering column and firewall caved in on Hovis.

Both men were taken to CMC-Charlotte where Hovis died the next day.

McGirth was charged with second-degree murder and felony death by vehicle.

Mixing medications

Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell told jurors that McGirth carelessly combined a prescription of Ambien with herbal male enhancement pills to cause his impairment.

A N.C. Highwaypatrolman testified to seeing an empty bottle of the herbal supplement by McGirth’s car at the crash scene and another bottle in McGirth’s hospital room.

During McGirth’s testimony Wednesday, he said that he was merely the middleman for the enhancement drugs, that he got them from a supplier in Atlanta and was to try to market them at a barbershop.

McGirth said that he took Ambien each night and had no issues from it.

A forensic toxicologist who reviewed the elements of the case testified that McGirth was grossly impaired with traces of Ambien in his system.

Prison time

Jurors decided that McGirth was guilty of felony death by motor vehicle.

Rather than find the man guilty of second-degree murder, jurors chose the lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter.

Before McGirth was sentenced, the Hovis family played a slideshow with pictures of the young man.

Donna Hovis spoke through tears, tears that erupted uncontrollably when she told the judge that she still hasn’t gotten an apology.

“I have yet to hear that anybody is sorry for taking my child away from me,” she sobbed.

McGirth did not speak. His attorney, Calvin Hamrick, spoke on his behalf – saying that McGirth is a good man who’s raised his family and suffers from medical issues.

McGirth was taken into custody at the close of the trial.

The Hovises hugged each other and all their supporters. They were happy with the verdict.

Mark Hovis said McGirth will have time to think about what he’s done. And in the end, McGirth still has his family, Hovis said.

“At least when he gets out he gets to come home to his son,” he said.

You can reach Diane Turbyfill at 704-869-1817 and twitter.com/GazetteDiane.